Math Learning Steps

Deepening explorations

Bit by bit, your child’s developing skills with shapes, counting, and descriptions will allow you to include more detailed and advanced aspects of shapes. Use lots of hands-on experiences for your child. Have your child fit pieces together, pile things on top of each other, put things inside other things, and study how shapes are put together in all the objects around them. As your child experiences these things, name and discuss the shapes, and ask lots of questions about them.

Shape words

It may seem like there are a lot of words to learn. However, if you make a habit of exposing your child to these words, your child will pick them up slowly but surely.

This is a list of flat shapes:

• Parallel lines (railroad tracks, two lines in the same direction that don’t meet)
• Right angle (angle found in the corner of a piece of paper)
• Circle
• Triangle
• Rectangle (looks like a piece of paper, it has four right angles)
• Square (rectangle with equal sides)
• Parallelogram (opposite sides are parallel)
• Rhombus (has four equal sides)
• Trapezoid (one pair of parallel sides)
• Pentagon (five sides)
• Hexagon (6 sides)
• Octagon (8 sides, stop sign)

This is a list of 3-dimensional shapes:

• Sphere (Ball)
• Cylinder (Round tube)
• Box (Cube)
• Pyramid (with a triangle or square as base

Symmetries

A lot of shapes have one side that looks like the other side upon being reflected. This is called mirror symmetry. The outside shape of a human body has mirror symmetry.

Tilings

Point out tiling patterns to your child. A lot of buildings have tiling patterns on floors, walls, or ceilings. Brick walls often have interesting patterns made by their bricks. These patterns often have mirror symmetries.